to hear from house democrats and house republicans ahead of a very big day for the president. he's giving a speech touting the relaunch of obama care 2.0. a major decision on the detroit bankruptcy case. the judge will take the bench in just minutes. and protesters tackling two major issues, immigration and the minimum wage. how pressure from the people could finally change washington. good morning, i'm chris jansing. there's a major new push to focus positive attention on obama care, and it starts today. the kickoff is at the white house this afternoon. we'll hear from the president today, but the plan is to have a democrat or someone from the administration do something every single day until the december 23rd deadline. and just announced, this thursday the president will sit down with chris matthews at american university. the interview will air right here on msnbc's "hardball" at 7:00 p.m. eastern. again, that's thursday, december 5th. and it appears to be the right time for a new pr

campaign, considering that the website is doing better. a senior administration official says 750,000 people visited the site yesterday, and enrollment numbers obtained by nbc news show more than 100,000 signed up in november. let me bring in our company, molly ball, national political reporter for the atlantic, ryan grim is the huffington post washington bureau chief and an msnbc contributor. good morning. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> so the huffington post had the scoop on this pr push, ryan. we know the president will come out at this event with americans who are already benefitting from the law. he's going to talk about the benefits they're getting, young people can stay on their parents' insurance, no more discrimination against people who have pre-existing conditions. now, on the other hand, the white house has had three years to make this case. so why is this any different? >> well, because now it's actually happening. and, you know, regular people are seeing the benefits of it. for years you've noticed the main thing that they would trot

out was if you repeal health care, kids under 26 are going to get thrown off their parents' plans and republicans had a quick response to that. they'd say, well, okay, we'll keep that part of it and throw the rest of it out. but now the meat of the thing is actually getting implemented. more than 100,000 people last month, it's going to be more than that as it gets to the deadline and the website starts working. so actual people are getting actual health care, which means it's much harder for you to roll back this program. so it really puts republicans in a difficult position because they said, look, obama care is terrible because people can't sign up on the website for it. now people can sign up on the website so that leaves them in a tough spot. >> well, when you talk about the meat, molly, obviously those things we've already talked about are things that you can sell. you can stay on your parents' insurance until you're 26, pre-existing conditions, price equity between men and women, which has not existed in many cases. but what about this website that

didn't work for two months and getting seven million people signed up by march. how is that looking realistically right now? >> well, the problems with the website and the problems with enrollments have made it very difficult to meet the goals that the administration has set. i think it's still very much an open question whether they'll be able to come anywhere near those ambitious goals. but i think what we are seeing now is the product of several weeks of confusion behind the scenes on the part of democrats. you saw them sort of running around with their hair on fire realizing what a political problem this was for them and seeing how republicans really seized the offensive going after all of the problems, which was a pretty dramatic demonstration of the incompetence of the agency that was supposed to be running this program. so now they are trying to on the one hand seize the offense back from republicans, hoping that the website is -- it still seems very fragile and there are a lot of problems on the back end but they're hoping it is working well enough they have something

to sell to people. also they tried offering fixes, they tried having the president offer an out to people getting their insurance cancelled. that didn't seem to get much traction so now they want to present a unified front and have everybody from the president on down selling the benefits of the plan and that is their strategy. >> ryan, when molly talks about the back end which involves the insurance companies and making sure that people that have signed up for insurance actually get the benefits, is that the biggest concern the administration has right now? >> well, sure. everything collapses if people can't sign up. they had this sophisticated nationwide plan for how they were going to geographically target people and get everybody up. they had, you know, groups on the ground who see this as a once in a generation organizing opportunity because you can actually deliver concrete services to people and win their loyalty that way. but if you can't get them to actually sign up, none of it works. but on the list of problems, a busted website is actually a

pretty good one to have because it's fixable. you know, if your problems were insurers refusing to cooperate or prices too high or, you know, other things that required long-term political fixes, then they would be in a much tougher spot. but because it was a technological problem, they can flood the zone with a bunch of engineers and techies and mostly fix it. you know, the site does seem to be working a lot better. >> and it does seem to be that the prices in fact aren't too high, the facts are contrary. the other piece of good news is that "the new york times" headline said the cost of health care seems to be decreasing. premiums will beni 9% lower so m guessing that's what we'll hear from the president. >> absolutely. and you hear anecdotally about people getting through on the website or being eager to sign up for expanded medicaid so you

see democrats making a gamble that those good news stories can drown out some of the bad news stories. there's probably always going to be glitches and people who have problems and inherent in the way this law works, there are going to be people who have higher costs than they otherwise would or than they did before, but the hope is that more people are benefitting and that those people's voices are going to drown out the court of chore usf neck different and the technical glitch will be fixable and the law itself will start to be seen. >> at least we seem to have stopped voting on defunding obama care, although we've been talking a lot about how congress doesn't seem to get anything done, ryan. let me switch gears, because the house is scheduled to vote today on the undetectable firearms act, making it illegal to manufacture guns that don't have any metal in them and can get smuggled through metal detectors. it's obviously a major concern because of 3-d printers able to print these plastic guns. let me play for both of you what steve israel told me yesterday.

>> i have been on the lead at renewing extending the undetectable firearms act because it's not a good idea to allow the bad guys to sneak plastic guns through metal detectors at airports. i am hopeful that we'll be able to do at least that. >> steve israel, obviously, ryan, a big supporter of this and one of the major proponents. is it going to get done? >> it doesn't look like the more advanced version of it is going to get done. and it's just mind-blowing. the dispute right now is over how much metal and what type of metal to put into one of these plastic guns, because the current law basically allows you to put a paper clip onto a plastic gun and then call it including some metal so then somebody buys it, they pull the paper clip-like thing off of it and they have something they can walk onto a plane, walk into a theater and do whatever they want with it regardless of a metal detector. democrats want to say the metal

has to be a permanent part of it. how permanent it would actually be, you know, is up for debate because you can saw off a shotgun. you can also saw off a piece of plastic. but, you know, we're going to an awfully dangerous place with these guns and congress doesn't seem especially house republicans don't seem that interested in dealing with it. >> and what's crazy about this, molly, is that the nra hasn't even said anything about this. they haven't taken a position on this, so it's not like they're actively lobbying against it. >> well, those are two different things. often we don't find out what the nra has been telling people or pushing people to vote until after it's already happened. i don't think we know yet whether this is going to turn into another divisive gun control battle. as ryan mentioned, the house has agreed to pass essentially a reauthorization of the law that already existed, but there is what democrats consider a major loophole in the law and what we've also seen with this congress is there's not a lot of

willingness to compromise, even when the step is a loophole or is very incremental, it's very difficult for democrats and republicans or the house and the senate to come together on something that moves the ball in any way at all. so i think a lot of lawmakers are gun shy, pun intended, after the last round of dealing with this issue. emotions are going to be very raw with the newtown anniversary coming up. so this may blow up into another one of those divisive battles or it may continue to fly under the radar. >> molly ball, ryan grim, good to see both of you, thank you. checking the news feed this morning, investigators on this weekend's deadly train crash in new york now say the engineer was going 82 miles an hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone and couldn't slow down fast enough to avoid catastrophe on a curve. the veteran engineer told investigators he applied the brakes but they didn't work. his union says he is distraught over the loss of life. new surveillance video this morning of the crash that killed

actor paul walker and his friend. police say drag racing was not a factor and the driver was going about 45 approaching a 15-mile-per-hour curve. walker's father was understandably overcome with emotion. >> they say the eyes are the windows to the soul. when you look at paul -- just look at his eyes and that's who he was. he couldn't hide what he was when you look into his eyes. >> the memorial at the crash site has grown with a steady stream of friends leaving candles, signs an other mementos. vin diesel also came to pay his respects. >> thank you for coming down here and showing that angel up in heaven how much you appreciated him. thank you.

>> walker's latest film, a hurricane katrina survival drama bill still be released as planned december 13th. any minute we could get a crucial ruling on detroit's bankruptcy. live pictures now of protesters outside the court house. a judge is expected to decide whether the cash-strapped city is eligible to get rid of $18 billion in debt, but creditors argue the city didn't put enough time into negotiations before filing for chapter 9. fast food workers nationwide will walk off the job on thursday, demanding higher pay. is 15 bucks an hour a living wage or is it a ticket to layoffs? we'll talk to one of the protest organizers coming up. ya know, with new fedex one rate

you can fill that box and pay one flat rate. i didn't know the coal thing was real. it's very real... david rivera. rivera, david. [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. and i know there are many myths out there about a reverse mortgage, so i want you to know the facts. there are currently no credit score or income requirements to qualify. you can get tax-free money from the equity in your home. you can use the money to pay off your current mortgage

if you have one. the remaining money can be used for anything. there's no monthly mortgage payments. and you still own your home! call today to get your free guide and dvd. it explains how a government-insured reverse mortgage works. there's no obligation. one reverse mortgage is a quicken loans company. their licensed experts can answer all your questions. call to find out what a great solution this can be. don't wait, call now! today the administration is fending off a new wave of republican and conservative

legal challenges. two states are claiming the irs does not have the power to give tax credits or subsidies to people who buy insurance through the federal health exchange. that is a long shot, although it is one in a series of suits across the country that target the affordable care act. i want to bring in oklahoma congressman james lankford and number five republican in the house. good to see you, congressman, good morning. >> good to see you as well. >> well, the supreme court has ruled on the aca, it is the law of the land of the most legal experts say these cases are a long shot at best. are republicans grasping at straws here? >> they're actually not grasping at straws. you talk about that particular part of the affordable care act has been ruled constitutional. there are multiple other arguments including this one dealing with 1311 of the actual affordable care act. the way that it's written it says if you have a state subsidy, if you have a state exchange then you have all these penalties and all these taxes that go with it. if you have a federal, then none of those things are actually

included. well, they didn't anticipate that 30-plus states, 34, 36, actually are going to do federal exchanges. so the problem is the law doesn't work the way it's written so they just interpreted it to say well, we assume the law meant to say something else. >> isn't that because republicans refused to set up those exchanges? >> not entirely. >> republican governors made a lot of decisions out there to do that, that was not anticipated. >> so your anticipation would be that she should have mandated all that and not let states make a choice when the supreme court actually said you can't do that. they did rule unconstitutional, you mentioned the affordable care act earlier that the federal government can't mandate all these things, it has to be a choice. those states had that choice, they made a choice and the administration said we wrote the law wrong so we're going to shift it. you just can't change the text of the law saying we would have written it a different way if we'd known you'd have done that. that has to go through the legislative process. the legislative branch writes the law, executive branch interprets -- actually executes the law and the judicial branch

interprets it. >> let me ask you about some of the new statistics that are out there. one is that 100,000 people signed up for obama care on the federal change in november, more than three times the number in october. also spending has grown by an estimated 1.3% a year since 2010. that's the lowest on record. price inflation is at its lowest rate in 50 years. the slow growth in health care spending has made a big dent in the long-term federal budget. so aren't those all good things? >> well, those would be good things. 100,000 people getting involved but there weren't five million people were kicked off their insurance. so 100,000 signing up when five million people lost it is a tough figure to say that's a positive thing. you've still got millions that don't have insurance and have had difficulty signing up. and if they don't sign up in the next three weeks, people that were insured are going to lose insurance in january. if you look at just my district, for instance, i have 1500 small

businesses that all work together that create a high risk pool. those high risk pools are now considered illegal under the affordable care act so all of them are out shopping when they currently had insurance. so again it's from your point of view whether it's a good thing 100,000 people signed up when there are millions that still don't have it. >> according to the kaiser family foundation for example, congressman, 144,000 residents of your state will be among five million americans who won't be covered by obama care because their states are refusing medicaid expansion. >> our state is doing something called insure oklahoma. we've done it several years. it was a ramp-up process where it was a state solution to deal with uninsured in our state. that now is also considered illegal and we're going through the process to try to figure out people that were covered under insure oklahoma, that are exactly in that pool you're describing, now are being pushed out and our state has to then reconfigure. the biggest issue is why. you talk to the people that were covered under insure oklahoma,

they liked their coverage. they have come to me and complained and said why can't i deep this. and so there are big issues. so it's simple to look at the data from a distance but when you know those families face to face, you see the real effect on them. a car dealership in central oklahoma city just talked to two days ago and his statement is he's now gone back on and discovered he's losing his insurance because he's one of those small associations -- small businesses that pull together a association and now he has to pay more or keep my doctor but if i go into the exchanges, my doctor is not there or i'm going to have to pay a lot more. why do i have to change. what was so bad about my policy and my doctor in the past. that's the real problem. >> well, we'll hear from the president later today with some of the people that have been helped by the affordable care act and this is a story that will be ongoing. thanks for coming in and talking. chris matthews will be talking with the president as heathis thursday, december 5th. you can watch that interview at 7:00 p.m. eastern time right here on msnbc.

so, what do a couple of nuns, a friar and an immigrant dad have in common? they're going into day 20 of a fast. our strategist will weigh in coming up. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ] [ male announcer ] the rhythm of life. [ whistle blowing ] where do you hear that beat? campbell's healthy request soup lets you hear it in your heart.

[ basketball bouncing ] heart healthy. [ m'm... ] great taste. [ tapping ] sounds good. campbell's healthy request. m'm! m'm! good.® that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, they could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call today to request a free decision guide. with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients... plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. join the millions who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp... and provided by unitedhealthcare insurance company, which has over 30 years of experience behind it. with all the good years ahead,

look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide. o0 c1 so when my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis them. was also on display, i'd had it. i finally had a serious talk with my dermatologist. this time, he prescribed humira-adalimumab. humira helps to clear the surface of my skin by actually working inside my body. in clinical trials, most adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis saw 75% skin clearance. and the majority of people were clear or almost clear in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb.

ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. make the most of every moment. ask your dermatologist about humira, today. clearer skin is possible. a massive push to get pay hikes for fast food workers a year in the making is heading into its most aggressive phase yet. workers across the country will walk off the job again thursday, this time in 100 cities. it's the largest effort yet. they're pushing for a pay raise to $15 an hour as well as the right to unionize. the federal minimum wage is $7.25. fast food workers earn $9 an hour on average. let me bring in kendall fells, organizing director for fast food forward. good to see you, thanks for

coming isn't. >> thanks for having me. >> let me play the devil's advocate because there are a lot of arguments made by the restaurant association and get your response to them. they think $15 is out of whack. the average starting teacher with a college degree and having to pass a licensing exam makes an average of $16 an hour. what makes a fast food worker worth 15 bucks? >> they work for some of the richest corporations in the world. mcdonald's made about $5.5 billion in profit. that's after they pay all the bills, pay all the salaries. yet a lot of workers are living in homeless shelters, couch surfing and they have to decide should i buy food for me and my daughter or get a metro pass to get to work tomorrow. i think that america is starting to show that this is just ridiculous. >> they also say that if you raise the pay to $15 an hour, restaurants will cut jobs and look for ways to auto mate. we've heard about where places where you can touch an ipad, put your order in, swipe a card. would eliminate the people who

stand behind the cash registers. are you worried that that raise, whether or not they're making billions of dollars, will cause them to auto mate and in essence jobs will be lost? >> i definitely don't think so. they also say that most of these workers are teenagers. in reality they're 29, 30 years old. most of them are women. and they're trying to take care of families. i think what it all comes down to, these companies are doing whatever they can to try to stop these workers. these workers are growing fast in the community with politicians, with religious leaders and they're going to continue to grow until they win this campaign. i don't think anyone is at risk of losing their jobs. it's just another square tactic. >> you do make a good pointing that the demographic of people who work in fast food has changed. it used to be a lot of teenagers. now teenagers have a tough time finding jobs and because of the job market a lot of older workers are coming into it, a lot of single mothers coming into fast food. and they would argue, look, this business model was built on part-time workers, teenagers.

it was never built as a business model to employ people to support their families. >> that might be true but once the recession hit in 2008, what you see now is the fast food industry, one of the fastest growing industries in the country. you see reports saying by 2020 half of americans will make less than $12.50 an hour and you see fast food leading the industry. it's time for fast food to pay their workers what they deserve because the workers are the ones making the money. how many ferraris can you get? >> talk to me about thursday. what are we going to see? and realistically given the climate out there, what do you think you can accomplish? >> well, thursday is going to be amazing. it's kind of the culmination of a year. what we're going to see is over 100 cities where fast food workers are on strike and then another 100 cities where fast food workers, religious leaders, community leaders and politicians are doing huge rallies. there's going to be thousands of fast food workers on strike protesting. they're talking about $15 an hour and the right to form a union without retaliation from

their employer. >> kendall fells, good to have you in. thanks so much. if you read only one thing this morning, if you want to see why health care reform is important, read this. it's an article that shows how let's say your kid falls down, opens a knee, needs some stitches. a single stitch can cost $500. it can cost $137 for a bag of iv fluid, $154 for a neck brace worthless than $20. the story is on our facebook page. phyllis cady said it's not just the stitch, it's the monitoring, making sure a scar won't be too visible, antibiotics to avoid infection, et cetera. think about it. the days of vodka are long past but you don't have to go to a hospital, just stay home and tough it out. believe me, they'll charge you for those antibiotics too. let us know what you think. just head to facebook/jansingco.

[ thunder crashes ] [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk.

we are just one hour away from a major end of year push to

get something done on immigration. the organization fast for families is holding a rally in march in washington trying to get the attention of lawmakers. it started with 17 people who vowed they wouldn't eat until an immigration reform bill is passed. some are now on day 21. president obama and the first lady visited them last week, bringing attention to their cause, but can they change minds? margie o'mara is a democratic pollster, hector barreto joins us also. we know these protesters have been fasting for weeks. they have prayed at the offices of speaker boehner. in the real world, does something like this help to get bills passed? >> i think it brings attention to the issue and this is an important issue. we were very hopeful earlier in the year when the senate passed their bill that there was going to be more movement on this. the reality is they don't have a lot of days left in this year and they have a lot of big issues so this probably is going

to be something that's going to be tackled at the beginning of the next year. >> and even if it waits until next year, there's still this argument over how to get it done. and there's the article in the national review that looks at the benefits of a step-by-step plan rather than a comprehensive bill. if you think amnesty is a good idea, argue for that on its own. if you also think congress has a responsibility to procure additional cheap labor for its billionaire benefactors, make your case for that separately. but mixing these two issues muld muddles the debate. the president recently said he could support a bill that was sort of in pieces. would that increase the chances of getting something done? >> well, i wouldn't -- i mean, look, you have a lot of republicans now all of a sudden have a plan for efficient lawmakering when it comes to immigration, something that they have been reluctant to work on. never mind that they have been the least effective congress in history on all issues taken together. and look, this may be political

controversial in washington. it's not political controvers l controversial. a majority of republicans say they support a path to citizenship with some requirements, which is what the plans on the table would likely include. so you have a lot of folks here in washington who seem to think that this is somehow a losing issue for them. it's not if you look at poll after poll after poll. a plurality of voters said recently they feel our immigration system is broken and about as many say it's an urgent priority and a priority to the next year or two. this is something voters want, they're in agreement with and they're looking for washington to take some action. >> since they haven't taken action, do you think, hector, that's the reason why a lot of states where there is some support for immigration reform, that they're taking it up? we used to see that we would hear, particularly from some border governors, we're going to have to toughen up the border on our own because the federal

government isn't doing it. now it's the other side of the issue. in illinois today some undocumented immigrants are getting the chance to apply for those temporary illinois driver's licenses. it doesn't make them a citizen or allow them to work, but it does give them the freedom to at least drive without the fear of being picked up. ten other states have passed similar laws, hector. is that what we're going to see if something doesn't happen on the federal level, this crazy patch work across the country? >> i think you'll see more of that because i think states are having to deal with the reality on the ground and they're not going to wait for washington, d.c. to continue pointing figures at each other and arguing and blaming the other guy because they can't come up with a perfect solution, so i think you are going to see that. i also think we have to deal with the reality that this system has been broken for a long time. as i remember it, it was ronald reagan that passed the first major comprehensive immigration bill. i know under our administration president bush tried to get something done during his administration. so there have been efforts. but look, there's a lot of folks

that i don't agree with on everything that are starting to say, you know what, we're going to have to treat this almost like the civil rights movement. we're going to have to break this down into pieces and just keep moving the ball forward, but we cannot keep the status quo that we have right now. that doesn't work for anybody. >> the political equation is so interesting, i think, in this case because as you pointed out, margie, when you look at the polls and the demographics of the voting public, it just makes sense. now we're seeing chris christie, who of course is being named as a possible nominee in 2016, being accused of flip-flopping on in-state tuition for young, undocumented immigrants because his critics say he wants to run for president. he says he continues to support the idea, although he won't sign the specific bill that was passed by his state legislature. here's what he said yesterday about that flip-flopping charge. >> i am for tuition equality. as i said that night at the latino leadership, i am for tuition quality. i am not for adding tuition aid

grants or adding undocumented out of state students to have rights that citizen out of state students don't have in new jersey and i'm not for an open-ended commitment that that not even the president of the united states was willing to grant in the executive action he took in the aftermath of the dream contact not being passed. >> this, as you know, margie, very savvy politician, has won over a lot of votes. i think he won 51% of the hispanic vote in his most recent gubernatorial race. what do you make of this controversy? >> well, he didn't win 50% of latino vote after people heard that statement. i mean, look, he's trying to appeal to everybody and he's going to end up not appealing to a lot of people as a result. there are -- there's a certain sect of republican primary voters that are not going to accept any kind of compromise when we're talking about dreamers or any kind of recognition of dreamers with in-state tuition or any capacity. again, it's not just a latino

issue. voters across the country are supportive of a path to citizenship. we're talking about young people where you see even more support. they're going to say what is the big deal here and who is chris christie? is he trying to run as a moderate who tells his party when they're being too extreme or is he somebody who is cow towing to a fringe element of republican primary voters. people are going to say maybe he's just another politician as opposed to somebody who is espousing straight talk. so i think that's where you're going to find chris christie trying to navigate the next couple of years and we'll see how he does. >> margie omero, hector barreto, we'll talk more. thank you so much. let's check the news feed. for the first time ever pope francis has commented on clergy sex abuse promising compassion and prayer for abuse victims. he was meeting with dutch bishops, as many as 20,000 children may have been abused between 1945 and 1981 in the dutch catholic church. american students are lagging behind their

international counterparts in math, reading, science. the new international standardized test scores indicate 15-year-olds in the u.s. were below the international average in math, about average in science and reading and dropped down in the ranking since the last test three years ago. the top scores from each subject came from shanghai. take a look at this incredible rescue that took place 20 miles off the nigerian coast around under water. three days after a tugboat capsized, divers were looking for bodies and a hand reached up to get them. the boat's cook was alive. he survived in a four-foot air bubble. he only had coca-cola to drink. he spent so long under water with so little oxygen he had to spend another 60 hours in a decompression chamber once he returned to the surface. unbelievable. fascinating photo has the internet buzzing about whether a face can be seen in a steel column from the world trade center. do you see it? workers say they have been

talking about a face for a while. some even call it the angel of 9/11 but it's getting a lot of attention because the u.k. newspaper "the sun" published a photo of it. it's one of two pieces of what's called impact steel from the north tower where it is believed one of the planes hit. cyber monday sales surging to a new record high. cnbc's brian sullivan is here with what's moving your money. good morning, my friend. were you part of the crowd that spent $2 billion on their shopping spree yesterday? >> no, i was not for two reasons. number one, i don't like cyber monday. i want to be put on record saying that because it's been relic from when none of us had high-speed internet at home and number two, i'm a grinch and not spending any money this christmas. >> i don't believe you. >> you should believe me on half of that. >> i believe the grinch part. >> now i see how it is, jansing, here we go. $2.29 billion is what americans spent, up 16% from last year. surprisingly the busiest hour was not 12:00 to 1:00.

everybody is at their desk shopping online. but 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. kind of lends credence to the whole idea of the second screen, sitting on the couch watching cnbc, msnbc or another fine nbc universal product. >> not necessarily in that order. >> with a laptop on your lap and shopping at the same time. i think that's what happened. and by the way, a lot of these sales are coming from mobile. in other words, we are buying stuff from our tablet and our cell phone. what's next? carrier pigeons? >> no, carrier drones apparently. >> yeah. >> i know internet shopping is your absolute favorite, but people are still buzzing about amazon. we're going to talk more about that. but can we also talk about sales tax, because one of the great things about shopping online has been in many cases you didn't have to pay sales tax. >> yes. and that may change in a number of states. i will drone on about this topic. tax generally i'm sorry very boring. this is not. it's important because the supreme court will stay out of the fight.

a lot of states want to tax online sales. right now amazon pays its affiliates and i'm only saying amazon because they're the biggest and there's not sales tax collected. brick and mortar mom and pop are saying this is unfair. our prices are higher because we've got to pay sales tax. so the supreme court is saying states, you decide. it upholds a new york ruling arouing sales tax to be collected. california, colorado, a number of other states are on board with internet sales taxes trying to even that playing field, if you will. so there you go. by the way, last story which i don't have time for, applebee's, tablets on all tabletops. so in other words, you order, pay, kids play games. with drones, tablets and self check-in flights and hotels, humans are becoming irrelevant. >> let's have as little interaction as a species as possible. i'm going to say good-bye to you -- >> this is not even me. it's a fake hologram. >> i knew it wasn't possible for a real human being to be that

handsome. look, i finally shut him up. the list is out for top baby names. noah is number one followed by lucas, liam, aiden drops to number two for the first time in eight years and number one jackson. >> isabela, olivia, emma and the number one sophia. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. it's not the "limit the cash i earn every month" card.

it's not the "i only earn decent rewards at the gas station" card. it's the no-games, no-signing up, everyday-rewarding, kung-fu-fighting, silver-lightning-in-a-bottle, bringing-home-the-bacon cash back card. this is the quicksilver card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. so ask yourself, what's in your wallet? before using her new bank of america credit card, which rewards her for responsibly managing her card balance. before receiving $25 toward her balance each quarter for making more than her minimum payment on time each month. tracey got the bankamericard better balance rewards credit card, which fits nicely with everything else in life she has to balance. that's the benefit of responsibility. apply online or visit a bank of america near you.

i'm here to say a few words about the power of baking stuff with nestle toll house morsels. you can heal a broken heart with a bundt cake. make a monday mornin' feel like a friday afternoon with some nestle toll house morsels. let's close our laptops and open our ovens. these things don't bake themselves. we have to bake them for one another. we can bake the world a better place one toll house cookie at a time. nestle. good food, good life. is what makes us different. we take the time to get to know you and your unique health needs. then we help create a personalized healthcare experience that works for you. and you. and you. with 50 years of know-how, and a dedicated network of doctors, health coaches, and wellness experts,

we're a partner you can rely on -- today, and tomorrow. we're going beyond insurance to become your partner in health. humana. you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec-d®. powerful relief of nasal congestion and other allergy symptoms -- all in one pill. zyrtec-d®. at the pharmacy counter. things found in common household products can increase the risk of a preterm birth. scientists studied urine samples and concluded those with the highest concentrations had a higher chance of a premature birth.

big news just coming from the white house on obama care. the healthcare.gov website had one million unique views yesterday, just confirmed by nbc's peter alexander at the white house. just moments ago, we had dueling democratic and republican news conferences, both sides blaming the other side for a lack of legislation that was signed into law this year. take a listen. >> jobs and infrastructure, the 2014 budget, immigration reform, minimum wage, enda, unemployment insurance, the farm bill and we have the brady background check. listen to the people of america who want to move congress forward and not be labeled as the most do-nothing congress in the history of the united states. >> the house has continued to listen to the american people and to focus on their concerns. now, whether it's the economy, whether it's jobs, whether it's protecting the american people from obama care, we've done our work. when you look at the number of

bills passed by the house and the paltry number of bills passed by the senate, you can see where the problem is. >> so far if you can believe it, only 55 bills have been signed into law this year. that makes this the least productive congress ever. we talked about this just a few minutes ago, amazon with the world on the edge of its seat. they have this tantalizing glimpse into the future of faster delivery using drones. it turns ot drones are already in widespread use. check it out, real estate agents use them to photograph homes for prospective buyers. farmers used them to spray. even hollywood uses them on productions. so if amazon has its way, will drones be dropping that new pair of shoes or a book at your doorstep? let me bring in matthew yglesias, nick wingfield is a "new york times" technology reporter.

good to see you, guys, good morning. >> good morning. >> matthew, lay it out for us. how might this amazon vision work? what would same-day drone deliveries look like? >> well, they're talking about a product that would be years away from actual deployment, but they're saying that these sort of flying helicopter-type things could bring you a parcel of less than five pounds within 30 minutes. they have these distribution centers all around the country. they're building more every month. and basically, you know, it's a warehouse where right now goods go out on trucks and they're talking about instead putting them on unmanned flying vehicles that could move very cheaply and rapidly to people's homes, at least for small parcels. >> jeff bezos said the hardest challenge will be convincing the faa. commercial use of drones is banned right now. i have this vision of thousands of drones in the air and they're crashing and then i have a size 11 pair of men's waders on my

doorsteps. what are the safety concerns and logistical concerns about getting this done? >> the list is endless. you can imagine drones running into wires overhead, you can imagine them landing on pets. you can imagine them landing on children in the background. >> oh, my gosh. >> there are so many different issues that they have to overcome. now, the reality is that the faa has already said that the american skies are going to be opened up to drones starting in 2015, to commercial use of drones, so it will come to the u.s. but whether delivery drones come from amazon is another question entirely. >> and of course, matthew, there are the privacy concerns. in a statement, senator ed markey said before drones start delivering packages, we need the faa to deliver privacy protection for the american public. convenience should never trump constitutional protections. how big a threat are drones to our privacy? >> well, you know, this is a concern a lot of people have been raising, and a number of towns and local communities around the country are taking

regulatory actions to try to prevent drones from flying around and photographing everyone as they relax in their homes or relax in their yards of the and i think that's the reason amazon has come out so early with this kind of otherwise unusual preannouncement. they want to be shaping this regulatory debate and make sure that the skies are clear for their delivery-type parcels even at the same time as legislators are going to be worried and people will be worried about their privacy. it's a little freaky to think about flying robots everywhere watching everything. >> i think to some extent we all figured out with all the cameras out there we're being watched but you add exponentially more cameras and it is a little more concerning. we asked our viewers about this. this has been one of the busiest facebook exchanges that we've seen in a long time. people are literally buzzing about it. one guy wrote if i get the wrong package, can i drone it back? another one said just think of the free stuff people will get shooting them down.

nick, realistically, you said it probably could be years before this is a reality, but is it likely to happen? >> what i think of this is, is akin to kind of the concept cars that the automotive industry puts out. there's a real foundation in technology. drones are real and working, but the practical safety and regulatory obstacles to them becoming a reality on a mass scale are so huge that it's really tough to emergency this coming to fruition within the time frame amazon talked about, perhaps ten years, maybe a little bit before then. but we're not -- i can't imagine these ever working in a place like new york. you know, so the market that they could serve really is a subset of amazon's broader audience. we don't know how much delivery is going to cost. there's so many different issues that amazon faces. >> matthew, nick, fascinating

discussion. thanks so much. we're back with "politics now" after the break. this iorge. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ [ male ♪ nouncer ] that's handy. ♪ i know they say you can't go home again ♪ ♪ ♪ i just had to come back one last time ♪ ♪ ♪ you leave home, you move on [ squeals ] ♪ and you do the best you can ♪ i got lost in this old world ♪ ♪ and forgot who i am to stretch my party budget. but when my so-called bargain brand towel made a mess of things, i switched to bounty basic. look! one sheet of bounty basic is 50% stronger than a full sheet of the bargain brand.

bounty basic. the strong but affordable picker upper.

[ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com.

liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? to "politics now." a new poll finds most americans want members of congress to be drug tested. 78% of americans favor random drug testing. meantime, uruguay's president is asking the world to help him legalize marijuana. he thinks it could be a great experiment to address drug trafficking. and the pope told a group of parishioners that he was a bouncer. some of his other jobs included sweeping floors and running lab tests. can't make it up. that wraps up this hour of "jansing & co." i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts, what did you do? >> he was a bouncer? >> he was a bouncer, because he looks so imposing and mean.

>> well, pope francis, he's got it going on. what did i do growing up? i was a bus boy. >> really? >> country club of maryland. i loved it when the guests would leave behind the rolls. first thing i'd do is eat them. love those rolls. yeah. anyway, chris, thanks so much. the agenda next hour, healthcare.gov, the little internet engine that could. with the wind at its back president obama goes into campaign mode to get america shopping for insurance. and he's sitting down with chris matthews on thursday. can he turn the political tables on his signature legislation? now, it was once the nation's fifth largest city. detroit, and its city manager, want a federal judge to declare is eligible for bankruptcy protection, but allowing the city to declare chapter 9 has huge ripple effects for pensions, city services, health care. we've got the latest on what it means for detroit residents. meanwhile the people of

wisconsin are being asked to spend their holiday cash in a unique way this year, donate it to the governor. how voters are responding.

vo: it's that time of year again. medicare open enrollment. time to compare plans and costs. you don't have to make changes. but it never hurts to see if you can find better coverage, save money, or both. and check out the preventive benefits you get after the health care law.

open enrollment ends december 7th. so now's the time. visit medicare.gov or call 1-800-medicare he was a matted messiley in a small cage. ng day. so that was our first task, was getting him to wellness. without angie's list, i don't know if we could have found all the services we needed for our riley. from contractors and doctors to dog sitters and landscapers, you can find it all on angie's list. we found riley at the shelter, and found everything he needed at angie's list. join today at angieslist.com diarrhea, gas, bloating? yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues... with three strains of good bacteria. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. because you can't beat zero heartburn. woo hoo!

[ male announcer ] prilosec otc is the number one doctor recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 8 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn. hi, everybody, i'm thomas roberts. topping our agenda, the art of the resale. after weeks of horrible headlines, glitches, delayed deadlines, the white house hopes to turn the political tables starting today with a major pr push to sell the benefits of obama care. the president heads off this fresh offensive with a speech planned for 2:30 p.m. eastern surrounded by americans who have been helped by the health care law. just announced this morning, this thursday, msnbc "hardball" host chris matthews will have a sitdown with president obama joined by students from american universities. the so-called young invincibles that the white house needs to reach. each and every day between now and december the 23rd, the administration and congressional democrats will hold an event touting a different positive